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Lesley Gore
| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York City, New York, US | death_date = | death_place = Manhattan, New York City, US | death_cause = Lung cancer | citizenship = | education = Sarah Lawrence College | occupation = | years_active = 1963–2014 | era = | known_for = | notable_works = | partner = }} | parents = | relatives = |Alan Dean Foster }} | module = | label = }} }} Lesley Sue Goldstein (May 2, 1946 – February 16, 2015), known professionally as Lesley Gore, was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. At the age of 16 (in 1963) she recorded the pop hit "It's My Party", and followed it up with other hits including "Judy's Turn to Cry", "She's a Fool", "You Don't Own Me", "Maybe I Know" and "California Nights". Gore also worked as an actress and composed songs with her brother, Michael Gore, for the 1980 film Fame, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. She hosted an LGBT-oriented public television show, In the Life, on American TV in the 2000s, and was active until 2014. Early life She was born Lesley Sue Goldstein in Brooklyn, New York City, into a Jewish family, the daughter of Leo Goldstein and Ronny Gore. Her father was the owner of Peter Pan, a children's swimwear and underwear manufacturer, "Daughter of Ronny and Leo, she was born Lesley Sue Goldstein into a middle-class Jewish family in New York City and grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey." and later became a leading brand licensing agent in the apparel industry. She was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey,Fine, Arlene. "It’s Lesley Gore’s party at Cain Park"Cleveland Jewish News, July 31, 2008. Accessed July 12, 2017. and attended the Dwight School for Girls in nearby Englewood. Career 1963–1979: Commercial success When she recorded her version of "It's My Party" with Quincy Jones in 1963, she was a junior in high school. It became a number-one, nationwide hit. Gore's version sold over one million copies and was certified as a gold record. It also marked the beginning of a time when fans would show up on her front lawn. "It's My Party" was followed by many other hits for Gore, including the sequel, "Judy's Turn to Cry" (US No. 5); "She's a Fool" (US No. 5); the feminist-themed million-selling "You Don't Own Me", which held at No. 2 for three weeks behind the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand"; "That's the Way Boys Are" (US No. 12); "Maybe I Know" (US No. 14/UK No. 20); "Look of Love" (US No. 27); and the Grammy-nominated "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" (US No. 13), from the 1965 movie, Ski Party. In 1965 she appeared in the beach party film The Girls on the Beach in which she performed three songs: "Leave Me Alone", "It's Gotta Be You", and "I Don't Want to Be a Loser". Gore was given first shot at recording "A Groovy Kind of Love" by songwriters Carole Bayer and Toni Wine with a melody borrowed from a sonatina by Muzio Clementi,Clementi, Muzio. Sonatina, Opus 36, Number 5 movement III, Rondo, measures 1–12 but Shelby Singleton, a producer for Mercury subsidiary Smash Records, refused to let Gore record a song with the word "groovy" in its lyrics. The Mindbenders went on to record it, and it reached No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Gore recorded composer Marvin Hamlisch's first hit composition, "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows", on May 21, 1963, while "It's My Party" was climbing the charts. Her record producer from 1963 to 1965 was Quincy Jones. Jones' dentist was Marvin Hamlisch's uncle, and Hamlisch asked his uncle to convey several songs to Jones. "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" was released on the LP Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts, but did not surface as a single until June 1965. Hamlisch composed three other Gore associated songs: "California Nights",PBS "American Masters: Marvin Hamlisch" edition "That's the Way the Ball Bounces" and "One by One". "That's the Way the Ball Bounces" was recorded September 21, 1963, at A&R Studios in New York; it was released as the B-side of "That's the Way Boys Are" and appeared on the LP Boys Boys Boys. "One by One" was an unreleased track recorded on July 31, 1969, in New York and produced by Paul Leka; it first appeared on the Bear Family five-CD anthology of Gore's Mercury work entitled It's My Party (1994). Gore was one of the featured performers in the T.A.M.I. Show concert film, which was recorded and released in 1964 by American International Pictures, and placed in the National Film Registry in 2006. Gore had one of the longest sets in the film, performing six songs including "It's My Party", "You Don't Own Me", and "Judy's Turn to Cry".Vincent, Alice. "Lesley Gore: Nine things you didn't know" . The Independent, February 17, 2015. Gore performed on two consecutive episodes of the Batman television series (January 19 and 25, 1967), in which she guest-starred as Pussycat, one of Catwoman's minions. In the January 19 episode "That Darn Catwoman", she lip-synched to the Bob Crewe-produced "California Nights", and in the January 25 episode "Scat! Darn Catwoman" she lip-synched to "Maybe Now".Hoekstra, Dave. "Our favorite Lesley Gore moments" , Chicago Sun-Times, March 11, 2007. Accessed May 31, 2007. "California Nights", which Gore recorded for her 1967 album of the same name, returned her to the upper reaches of the Hot 100. The single peaked at No.16 in March 1967 (14 weeks on the chart). It was her first top 40 hit since "My Town, My Guy and Me" in late 1965 and her first top 20 since "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows". Gore also performed the single "We Know We're in Love" ten months earlier on the final episode of The Donna Reed Show, which aired on March 19, 1966. After high school, while continuing to make appearances as a singer, Gore attended Sarah Lawrence College, studying British and American English literature. At college folk music was popularly lauded as 'chic', whereas pop music was often derided as 'uncool.' "Had I been tall with blonde hair, had I been Mary Travers, I would have gotten along fine." She graduated in 1968.Patricia E. Davis, "Lesley Gore In Comeback With Her College Degree" Pittsburgh Press, June 6, 1969.Jon Bream, "It's Lesley Gore's party" , Star Tribune, January 10, 2010. Gore signed a contract with Mercury Records for five years, which carried her obligations to the company through the spring of 1968. Her last big hit had been twelve months prior to this time, but Mercury still saw promise in her as an artist, and believed that one of her singles would make it, like they had in the past. They offered a one year extension on the initial contract, and Gore was formally contracted to Mercury for a sixth year. During this time, "He Gives Me Love (La La La)", a single release based on a Eurovision Song Contest winner, rose to #96 on the Music Business charts, while bubbling under the hot 100 in Billboard. Mercury took out a full page ad in the trades to support the single, but its airplay was spotty, becoming a hit in only a few major markets. She was then paired with the successful soul producers Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell for two acclaimed singles that took her into the "soul" genre: "I'll Be Standing By" and "Take Good Care (Of My Heart)." These songs did not fit the image Mercury had crafted for her, and the singles were not played. Her contract with Mercury ended after the release of "98.6/Lazy Day" and "Wedding Bell Blues" failed to make headway on the charts. In 1970, she signed with Crewe Records and was reunited with producer Bob Crewe, who had produced her album California Nights. None of the Crewe releases charted. 1980–2015: Career as a composer and Ever Since Gore composed songs for the soundtrack of the 1980 film Fame, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for "Out Here on My Own", written with her brother Michael.Jones, Chad. "It's still her party, and Lesley Gore's not crying", Oakland Tribune, April 21, 2006. Accessed May 31, 2007. Michael won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the theme song of the same film. Gore played concerts and appeared on television throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Gore co-wrote a song, "My Secret Love", for the 1996 film Grace of My Heart. The film includes a subplot about a young singer named Kelly Porter, who is based in part on Gore and is played by Bridget Fonda. The character, who is a closeted lesbian, performs "My Secret Love" in the film.Glitz, Michael. "Singing Her Own Tune: Lesley Gore Is on Her Second Run of Celebrity-From the "It's My Party" Songbird of the '60S to the out Singer-Songwriter of 2005's Quietly Haunting Indie CD Ever Since." The Advocate, January 17, 2006. ("Gore could have been out more prominently in the mid '90s in connection with the movie Grace of My Heart, which included a subplot about a Gore-like teen idol (played by Bridget Fonda) who was gay. Gore worked on the character's song--'My Secret Love'--until she was comfortable having her name on it as a cowriter. But she felt wary that she'd been brought in too late for a real collaboration, and when she wasn't even invited to the premiere, Gore was convinced the filmmakers had used her primarily for publicity. 'It turned into the opposite of what I would have wanted,' she says."Childs, T. Mike. The Rocklopedia Fakebandica (St. Martin's Griffin, 2014), , p. 167. Excerpts available at Google Books. In 2005, Gore recorded Ever Since (her first album of new material since Love Me By Name in 1976), with producer/songwriter Blake Morgan, with the label Engine Company Records. The album received favorable reviews from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard Magazine and other national press. The album also included a revised version of "You Don't Own Me", about which the New York Daily News wrote: "In Lesley Gore's new version of 'You Don't Own Me'—cut more than 40 years after its initial recording—she lends a pop classic new life." Gore commented: "Without the loud backing track, I could wring more meaning from the lyric". And: "It's a song that takes on new meaning every time you sing it." Personal life Beginning in 2004, Gore hosted the PBS television series In the Life, which focused on LGBT issues. In a 2005 interview with After Ellen, she stated she was a lesbian and had been in a relationship with luxury jewelry designer Lois Sasson since 1982."Interview with Lesley Gore" , After Ellen, June 3, 2005 She had known since she was 20 and stated that although the music business was "totally homophobic," she never felt she had to pretend she was straight. "I just kind of lived my life naturally and did what I wanted to do," she said. "I didn't avoid anything, I didn't put it in anybody's face." Death Gore had been working on a memoir and a Broadway show based on her life when she died of lung cancer on February 16, 2015, at the NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, New York City; she was 68 years old. At the time of her death, Gore and her partner, Lois Sasson, had been together for 33 years. Her New York Times obituary stated that with her songs, all recorded before she was 18, such as "the indelibly defiant" 1964 hit "You Don't Own Me," Lesley Gore made herself "the voice of teenage girls aggrieved by fickle boyfriends, moving quickly from tearful self-pity to fierce self-assertion.""Lesley Gore, Teenage Voice of Heartbreak, Dies at 68 " by Jon Pareles, The New York Times, 16 February 2015 Her funeral was held on February 19, 2015, in Manhattan. Awards and recognition In 1964, "It's My Party" was nominated for a Grammy Award for rock and roll recording.Retro, Ricky. "It's her party, and it's Spector's turn to cry", The Star-Ledger, May 24, 2004. National Public Radio (NPR) named Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts, Gore's second album, as forebearer of one of the top 150 albums recorded by women. The album missed the official list (1964–present) because it was released in 1963. "She is a forebear for her assertion of feminine power in pop, and her validation of a female perspective." Discography * I'll Cry If I Want To (1963) * Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts (1963) * Boys, Boys, Boys (1964) * Girl Talk (1964) * My Town, My Guy & Me (1965) * Lesley Gore Sings All About Love (1966) * Off and Running (1967) (canceled) * California Nights (Lesley Gore album) (1967) * Magic Colors (1967) (canceled) * Someplace Else Now (1972) * Love Me By Name (1975) * The Canvas Can Do Miracles (1982) * ''Ever Since (2005) Filmography Film Television References External links * * Discography * * Lesley Gore, Aveleyman Category:American female singers Category:1946 births Category:2015 deaths Category:American child singers Category:American female singer-songwriters Category:American female pop singers Category:Feminist musicians Category:Lesbian feminists Category:Lesbian musicians Category:LGBT Jews Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:LGBT singers Category:LGBT people from New Jersey Category:LGBT people from New York (state) Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Jewish American songwriters Category:Jewish feminists Category:Jewish rock musicians Category:Mercury Records artists Category:Sarah Lawrence College alumni Category:Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People from Tenafly, New Jersey Category:Actresses from New Jersey Category:Actresses from New York City Category:Singers from New Jersey Category:Singers from New York City Category:20th-century American actresses Category:21st-century American actresses Category:20th-century American singers Category:21st-century American singers Category:20th-century women musicians Category:21st-century women musicians Category:21st-century women singers